Today, I bring you a Q&A session I had with sixth place finisher Rich Lindgren. Rich is a
tournament bass angler living in Lakeville, MN chasing bass all over
Minnesota and its adjoining states. Bass blogger, podcaster and fishing
promoter. You’ll see him fishing the Minnesota bass tournament scene
representing krugerfarms.com and Dobyns Rods among others. You can
follow him on Twitter (@HellaBass) and like him on Facebook (facebook.com/bassinblog)._________________________________________________________________________________
Q: Talk about your previous experience fishing Pools 7, 8, and 9 and did that experience help in preparing for this tournament?
Rich: My previous experience on these pools goes back to over 10 years where I fished a few small club tournaments, but there was a gap of close to 10 years from then until just last year, when I came down for the Sunday of the Elite event (outside of a Weekend Series out of PDC, where I locked up to Pool 9). I also fished the Everstart as a co-Angler and fished the TBF northern divisional last September. Last year's tournament experience gave me the familiarity with Pool 8 so I could get around and gave me confidence in areas where I felt quality fish lived and I felt I just had to refine those areas for spring.
Q: What were the river conditions like?
Rich: For the tournament, I believe the stage was around 8.7', water temps were 62-65F, and water clarity was around a foot in most areas that I fished.
Q: How did your practice period go?
Rich: Practice was limited and I really only found 1 decent area with about 3 spots. I spent about 5 hours on the top of Pool 7 the Saturday prior because of a small window I had. I fished 7 again from 4-8pm on Thursday night on my way down and after that I had one small area where I found a few decent largemouth. Friday morning, I fished from 6am - Noon out of the Stoddard ramp. It was hit & miss, but I found an area where I got 2 good largemouth bites, a bank with some bedding smallies and then finally a staging spot that seemed pretty loaded with fish. From 1pm until the meeting I fished back up by Clinton street looking for backup water, that only eliminated more water for me.
Q: Based on your assessment, what stage do you believe the majority of fish are in right now?
Rich: Great question on what stage the fish are in. Well, I can say that I found a few smallmouth and largemouth on beds in the tournament & caught some of each on Saturday. The weird thing for me, is that I fished a closing dam near my spawning bank, which I thought would be loaded with pre-spawn fish, but while a few fish were chunky, about 80% of them were long and thin, and looked worn out, which would suggest a bunch of post-spawn fish. So I guess, there are fish in all 3 stages, but my guess going in, it would've been mostly pre-spawn with the spawn just starting. For the next few weeks, I think you can fish for both bedding fish as well as spawners, but I think the safer bet would be to target the schools coming and going.
Q: What pattern(s) did you establish in practice?
Rich: Not sure I really ended up with a pattern, as much as I found a really good spot and two areas with some better single fish on beds.
Q: On tournament day, did you catch what you expected to?
Rich: I think I did expect to catch what I did in practice, but thought I would have got more fish off the beds, but ended up getting most of my quality fish off the staging spot. I caught a few quick fish off the spot in practice and left to find more, but when I fished it hard the morning of the tournament it quickly became apparent this spot was loaded. In hindsight, I wish I would have spent a little less time on the first spawing bank with smallies, many had left overnight, also spent time catching two bedders that were too small. Maybe I could have caught a bigger largemouth that I ran of time on.
Q: Any closing thoughts you have about this event?
Rich: Overall, pretty pleased with a 6th place finish in a May BFL. Outside of a dead fish that cost me 5th, I think I could have gained a few ounces to a pound by sticking with my primary spot, but I left to fish for a big upgrade looking for largemouth. It didn't work, but that is what I needed to do to have a chance at a win.
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I'd like to say thanks to both Kyle and Rich for sharing their BFL experiences with us and hopefully we'll hear from them again in the future. Friday, I'll be making a trip to one of my favorite spring smallmouth lakes and hopefully I'll have some pictures and stories of giants to share with you.
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